Gil Elvgren American [Artistic] Illustrator...Of Classic Pin-Up Girls...Of The 1940s and 50s

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[Pictured: A [Classic] Pin-up girl...

A pin-up girl, also known as a pin-up model, is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, e.g. meant to be "pinned-up" on a wall. Pin-up girls may be glamour models, fashion models, or actresses.

The term pin-up may also refer to drawings, paintings, and other illustrations done in emulation of these photos (see the list of pin-up artists). The term was first attested to in English in 1941;^[1]however, the practice is documented back at least to the 1890s.

The pin-up images could be cut out of magazines or newspapers, or be from postcard or chromo-lithographs, and so on. Such photos often appear on calendars, which are meant to be pinned up anyway. Later, postersof pin-up girls were mass-produced and became an instant hit.

Many pin-ups were photographs of celebrities who were considered sex symbols. One of the most popular early pin-up girls was Betty Grable, whose poster was ubiquitous in the lockers of G.I.s during World War II. Other pin-ups were artwork, often depicting idealized versions of what some thought a particularly beautiful or attractive woman should look like. An early example of the latter type was the Gibson girl, drawn by Charles Dana Gibson. The genre also gave rise to several well-known artists specializing in the field, including Earle K. Bergey, Enoch Bolles, Alberto Vargas, Gil Elvgren, George Petty, and numerous notable artists, such as Rolf Armstrong and Art Frahm.

Notable contemporary pin-up artists include Elias Chatzoudis, Armando Huerta, and Chuck Bauman. Another is popular Pin-Up Artist Olivia De Berardinis who is most famous for her Pin-Up Art of Bettie Page and her pieces in the earlier editions of Playboy.

“To understand both the complicated identity and the subversive nature of the nineteenth-century actress, one must also understand that the era’s views on women’s potential were inextricably ties to their sexuality, which in turn was tie to their level of visibility in the public sphere: regardless of race, class or background, it was generally assumed that the more public the woman, the more “public,” or available, her sexuality.”^[2]

It was conscious contemporaneity and sexual self-awareness on stage that burlesque performers had reached a new age. With this increasing sense of awareness, burlesque actresses/performers used photographic advertisement as business cards to promote themselves and raise their popularity.^[3] These adverts and/or business cards could often been found in almost every green room, pinned-up or stuck into “frames of the looking-glasses, in the joints of the gas-burners, and sometimes lying on-top of the sacred cast-case itself.”^[3] Understanding the power of photographic advertisements to promote their shows, burlesque women self-constructed their identity to make themselves visible. Being recognized not only within the theater itself but as well outside, challenged the conventions of women’s place and women’s potential in the public sphere.^[4]

From mid. 19th century burlesque performers and their adverts/business card cresting their photo to early 20th century photographed oriental dancers in which were highly desired to female caricatures performing ‘ordinary’ things, like the Gibson Girl became popular. The ‘ordinariness’ that these drawn pictures suggested, was erotic. The fact that, unlike the photographed actresses and dancers generations earlier, fantasy gave artists the freedom to draw women, in particular the Gibson Girl in many different ways he would like.^[5]This is where the popular “pin-up girls” from the 1920’s era begins.

 

“Because the New Woman was symbolic of her new ideas about her sex, it was inevitable that she would also come to symbolize new ideas about sexuality.”^[6] Being sexually fantasized, famous actresses in early 20th century film were both drawn and photographed and put on posters to be sold for personal entertainment.^[7] The 1932 Esquire ‘men’s’ magazine featured many drawings like the Gibson Girl and “girlie” cartoons but most was most famous for their Varga girls. Varga girls were the next pin-up girls. Prior to WWII they were praised for their beauty and less focus was on their sexuality. However, during the war the drawings transformed into women playing dress-up in military drag and drawn in seductive manners, like that of a child playing with a doll.^[8] The Varga girls became so popular that from 1942-1946, due to a high volume of military demand, “9 million copies of the magazine-without adverts and free of charge was sent to American troops stationed overseas and in domestic bases.”^[9] Nevertheless, not one picture could be as significant or memorable as the Varga Girls nose art of the WWII bombers; not seen as prostitutes but patriots for good luck.^[10]

Feminism and the pin-up

"As sexual images of women multiplied in the popular culture, women participated actively in constructing arguments to endorse as well as protest them."^[11]

In the early 20th century, where these drawings of women helped define certain body images such as being clean, being healthy, being wholesome and enjoyed by both "normal" men and women as time progressed it is no surprise that these images changed from respectable to illicit.^[12]

As early as 1869, women have been supporters and protestors of the pin-up. Women supporters of early pin-up content considered these to be a “positive post-Victorian rejection of bodily shame and a healthy respect for female beauty.”^[13] On the contrary, women protesters argued that these images were corrupting societal morality and saw these public sexual displays of women as lowering the standards of womanhood, destroying their dignity and harmful to both women and young adolescence.^[13]

[editor's note: All Of this information is courtesy@ Of...

Wikipedia...Wiki ]

 

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"Sing, Sing, Sing" was recorded in Hollywood with Benny Goodman on clarinet; Harry James, Ziggy Elman, and Chris Griffin on trumpets; Red Ballard and Murray McEachern on trombones; Hymie Schertzer and George Koenig on alto saxophones; Art Rollini and Vido Musso on tenor saxophone; Jess Stacy on piano; Allan Reuss on guitar; Harry Goodman on bass; and Gene Krupa on drums.

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[editor's note: In Order To View The Lobby Cards and Posters Up-close and Personal...Just Tap The Lobby Cards and Posters [On This Page][ and Then The Lobby Cards and Posters Will Appear On A Separate Page Smaller Then "Tap" it again...] In Order To Take a Closer Look...Thanks,]

GIL ELVGREN (American, 1914-1980)
The Verdict Was Wow!, Brown & Bigelow calendar illustration, 1947
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 in.
Signed lower right
This painting was reproduced as figure 216 in Gil Elvgren - All His Glamorous American Pin-Upsby Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, Taschen, 1999. Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000.

Elvgren, Gil:.

Condition Report*:

Stretcher creases visible. UV examination reveals a one inch area of in painting on figure's left and right upper calves; small areas of in painting to lower right edge and bottom left edge.  Overall in very good condition. 

Framed to an overall size of 33 x 27 inches.

*________ Auctions strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder. Statements by _________ regarding the condition of objects are for guidance only and should not be relied upon as statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation, warranty, or assumption of liability by __________. All lots offered are sold "AS IS".

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[editor's note: In Order To View ELVGREN PAINTINGS,  The Lobby Cards and Posters Up-close and Personal...Just Tap The Lobby Cards and Posters [On This Page][ and Then The Lobby Cards and Posters Will Appear On A Separate Page Smaller Then "Tap" it again...] In Order To Take a Closer Look...Thanks,]

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GIL ELVGREN (American, 1914-1980)
Riding High, 1958
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 in.
Signed lower right

This painting was reproduced as figure 292 in Gil Elvgren All His Glamorous American Pin-Ups by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, Taschen, 1999.

From the Estate of Charles Martignette. Estimate: $30,000 - $40,000...[THIS PAINTING SOLD FOR $167,300.00]

Elvgren, Gil:.

Condition Report*:

Stretcher creases visible.  UV examination reveals inpainting along four edges; area of in painting to the left of figure's hat and above figure's forearm.  Overall very good condition.  Framed to an overall size of 32 x 26 inches. 

*__________Auctions strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder. Statements by __________ regarding the condition of objects are for guidance only and should not be relied upon as statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation, warranty, or assumption of liability by ___________. All lots offered are sold "AS IS".

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GIL ELVGREN (American, 1914-1980)
The Three Dollar Bill, Today's Woman magazine, story illustration, circa 1946
Oil on canvas
21 x 33 in.

Signed lower right
From the Estate of Charles Martignette.
"'I wouldn't have a baby for you even if you were President of the United States,' Bette announced.'"
This painting was reproduced on page 54 of Elvgren - His Life and Artby Max Allan Collins and Drake Elvgren, Collectors Press, 1998. Estimate: $5,000 - $7,000. [THIS PAINTING SOLD FOR $20,000]

Elvgren, Gil:

Condition Report*:

 

*________ strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder. Statements by ________ regarding the condition of objects are for guidance only and should not be relied upon as statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation, warranty, or assumption of liability by ________. All lots offered are sold "AS IS".

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GIL ELVGREN (American 1914 - 1980)
A Christmas Eve (Waiting For Santa), 1954
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 in.
Signed lower right

This painting was reproduced as figure 245 in Gil Elvgren All His Glamorous American Pin-Ups by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel. Estimate: $30,000 - $40,000...[THIS ELVGREN SOLD FOR A WHOOPING $50,787.50]

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Elvgren, Gil:

Condition Report*:

This piece has been framed to an overall size of 37.5 x 31.5 in., and the art is in Excellent condition.

*________Auctions strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder. Statements by ________ regarding the condition of objects are for guidance only and should not be relied upon as statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation, warranty, or assumption of liability by ________.

All lots offered are sold "AS IS".

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GIL ELVGREN (American, 1914-1980)
Socking It Away (This Way I Draw More Investments; Investments Should Be...), 1949
Oil on canvas
30.5 x 24 in.
Signed lower right...

This painting was reproduced as figure 226 in Gil Elvgren All His Glamorous American Pin-Ups by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel, Taschen, 1999. Estimate: $30,000 - $40,000...Sold for: $71,700.00

Elvgren, Gil:.

Condition Report*:

Minor frame abrasions to upper left and right edge with minor paintloss. 4" diagonal light crease in-painted in spots in lower left of building. UV examination reveals minor inpainting to top left region; in-painting to woman's hair above her right shoulder; scattered in-painting to woman's middle right region and purse; scattered in-painting to the figure on the right and along the right edge.  Framed to an overall size of 33 x 27 inches.

*_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Auctions strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder. Statements by_ _ _ _ _ _ _  regarding the condition of objects are for guidance only and should not be relied upon as statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation, warranty, or assumption of liability by _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Framed lots estimated at $1000.00 or less shall not be unframed for inspection and may not be returned based on condition. All lots offered are sold "AS IS".

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GIL ELVGREN (American 1914 - 1980)
Skirting the Issue, 1952
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 in.

Signed lower right
This painting was reproduced as figure 324 in Gil Elvgren All His Glamorous American Pin-Ups by Charles G. Martignette and Louis K. Meisel.

An elegant, sophisticated beauty makes this scandalous turn of events delightfully outrageous. As was often the case with his Brown & Bigelow scenes from the fifties, Gil Elvgren added a cute canine companion to serve an innocent bystander to this slapstick situation. This is just the sort of good-natured pinup humor that earned Gil Elvgren the fitting nickname of "the Norman Rockwell of cheesecake." Estimate: .

Elvgren, Gil:.

Condition Report*:

The art is in Excellent condition.

*_  _ _ _ _ _ _ _  Auctions strongly encourages in-person inspection of items by the bidder. Statements by  *_  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ regarding the condition of objects are for guidance only and should not be relied upon as statements of fact, and do not constitute a representation, warranty, or assumption of liability by *_  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . Framed lots estimated at $1000.00 or less shall not be unframed for inspection and may not be returned based on condition. All lots offered are sold "AS IS".